Many ways to skin a reef, this is mine. (54 Litre/14 Gallon)
- Nano Build
- Thread starter hotashes
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OP
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hotashes
Well-Known Member
Just went through your thread, really nice nano, will be following
Kudos to you being post #100. Thank you for getting involved and glad you've found this learning curve for me a pleasure.
As always, [emoji111]️
A.
Corals look great, very impressiveThat feeling you get when dosing works as planned. I cannot imagine how the clams/corals are benefitting [emoji6]
Currently dosing 6ml/day Alk, 10ml/day Cal.
A.
OP
OP
hotashes
Well-Known Member
Thanks, appreciated. No doubt everybody is awaiting an update too.... I will have to come up with something, especially as everything is going in the right direction and alive
A.
Contrariwise
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Tanks looking amazing!
OP
OP
hotashes
Well-Known Member
Hey the tank is doing well, all still alive and kicking. Clams growing...
Only a few minor issues to report, will discuss them in next update as it’s night time here right now.
Apologies to seem short, and thanks for the interest mate. Speak very soon
A.
OP
OP
hotashes
Well-Known Member
Time for some feedback. Apologies of being absent gang, life has been needing me and the tank less so. I guess that can go either direction, either good or bad!
Well let’s begin with as I was sitting by my tank, as we all do let’s be honest. There was a Big Bang/crash and voices yelling oooopppsssss. Looking immediately at the tank I’m thinking the worse, looking for damage from the 20x16” canvass which dropped from its fixing in the wall. I see plastic floating within the tank, dang the hob took the hit. Although it’s only home to some filter floss and only active through the night it still makes up part of my tank. So considering that was the worst of the damage I took it as a bonus as I honestly thought I would have more damage to face. Long story short, I further damage to the tank, no longer have any fixtures positioned above the tank, other than my radion of course....
Just as the tank was making me happy to seem settled. Fortunately I have back ups and was able to add my back up hob so back as it was, happy days.
Although it felt like I was not giving the tiny nano tank the attention it needed by not changing water for a whole month, it was only as I was working out how this dosing regime works and making sure I got to learn how much my tank demanded from replenishing the main three, Alk, Cal & Mg on my doser. Again it took longer than anticipated as other life demands took priority. Anyhow, we now have the tank being dosed 10ml/day of both Alk & Cal, and from what I’ve read, it’s optimum to have those two elements being dosed equally to prevent having an unbalanced regime, eventually causing a potential problem for the corals/clams etc. Obviously I kept looking at the tank thinking I need to give it a water change and clean the nano skimmer, clean the piles of detritus off the tank bottom as well as address the slight algae growth. This eventually got done, well needed.
Fast forward. Having had my Pink-Streaked Wrasse in holding tank for a good 40 days, it was time to decide if I prophylactically treat using CP & de wormer as I’m sure it’s common knowledge that Wrasse are known for internal worms. I was not sure to risk running the fish through CP as wrasse are known to struggle on that med and I believe it’s more common the use copper to treat Wrasse. Anyhow, as I purchased the fish from a reputable trusted LFS who had the fish run through their own QT on a lower dose of copper I was leaning towards just visually examining the fish’s well being and looking for signs of parasite/illness. This I never see any signs of, other than a tiny white speck on the anal fin early on which I later settle on thinking it must have been where the fish rests upon the tank bottom and must have just had something caught as it went away and never came back. Partly the reason I kept the fish in the holding tank in case it had a break out of white spot for example.
So, all the clams have new shell growth, white in abundance which for me is one of the better signs knowing the clam is healthy. My corals are spouting new heads, or new growth. For me that’s enough to feel I must be going in the right direction. Who said smaller tanks are more demanding ha ya, being a newb to marine fish keeping I am glad I did my research and found the people I wanted to listen to for guidance. After all in this hobby, every tank is different and many hobbyist tend to follow advice at a point of feeling there is no other option, because they have issues they are not sure how to deal with. Then it’s difficult to know who to follow as there are so many answers to the one question, yet all deem to appear it’s the right answer.
If I had of not done my research I would have not known I could skip cycle my set up, put a 1” maxima clam in after the first month, take my coral out of the water when needed to action maintenance, use hydrogen peroxide to blast algae from my rocks just to name a few. All this in a small tank, many would naturally think it’s not going to work. Well I can only speak from experience that the tank is well, as mentioned above, clams and coral doing well.
Since set up I’ve only lost a small Alveopora carol of which I’m aware can be temperamental at best and one of my fire shrimp, unexplained death as the other one I purchased from same tank is still thriving today!!!
The @reefloat nano slimmer is certainly something I would recommend as its doing a fab job, that so I’m sure it was removing too much dissolved nutrients when I never had fish of which is why my Alveopora died. I’ve not changed the Aqua Medic air block since it was installed with the skimmer, that’s just good considering they’re branded to only last 1-2 months at best before they need renewing. Obviously not the case, providing maintenance is done of course
Finally, and don’t judge however feel free to chime in. Yet again sitting by the tank, having the feeling of being submerged on a coral reef ha ha, it’s a dream.... I notice something unusual, yet the nightmare everybody housing sps dreads. Flatworm, a google search later reveals it’s not a pest or danger as such until it becomes overrun. The sp. Acoel seem to be the least problematic although obviously who wants any form of pest. Admittedly they’re known for loving detritus as well as thrive in heavily fed tanks, so considering I was feeding a whole frozen cube over two days I guess that explains their survival. Some suggest 48h blackout, will rid of them, however not keen to action that right now. Other obviously suggest the magic potion flatworm treatment, of which could have an adverse affect if there are too many in situ as upon death they release a toxin and that would impact a tank if riddled with flatworms. Yes I can siphon the majority off the glass and treat, however as I’ve always looked at it. Don’t just pour potions into the whole water column, hence why I kept an accessible rock structure in the events of needing to take the rock out for maintenance. I will always keep any tank I keep with an easy accessible rock scape, regardless. Purely as I prefer to rid of any issue rather than sit it out and manifest. So this left me with a choice of manual eradication or putting together my mesh cover for the tank top and get my Wrasse from QT/holding tank and into the mix.
Welcome my latest addition to the display tank, Pink-Streaked Wrasse (picture to follow). Upon entrance he was at work, picking at the rocks. Now just a test to see if he deals with this slight issue regarding the flatworm. I report this as I believe the Acoel Sp. can be common in most tanks, however are kept at bay from predators of which I had none, until now. Other than that, I’ve held back from feeding totally and sparsely feed the clownfish to keep it ticking over. Let’s see if the Wrasse and Pipefish can do a job of the survival mode and clean up the tank, of the pest at least...... Before I remove the one I see from the glass at weekly water change
FTS
Coral growth
Fungia love
Acoel flatworm (microscope)
The flatworm appears to have green algae content in their body which I believe it their source of food, which explains not surprised as I never scraped the glass for a long time when I never did a water change for the month. For me I’m more happy that the tank is thriving and it’s an issue which could have been a lot worse. Still thinking how it got into the tank initially, my best guess would be from the Crocea clam which was my last addition over a month ago. I did my usual procedure of toothbrush the shell and h2O2, then RODI , to rid of algae or pests. And I give it a thorough go. The reason I think it’s the culprit is I’d never had the pest previously and I noticed a foam like best cocoon growth between the scoots form of which I still don’t know what it could be. A sponge maybe? Who knows......
Well, back to family life folks and be good to catch up with you all on some feedback/advice
@brandon429
@DSC reef
@NY_Caveman
@SPR1968
@Vincent100
A.
Well let’s begin with as I was sitting by my tank, as we all do let’s be honest. There was a Big Bang/crash and voices yelling oooopppsssss. Looking immediately at the tank I’m thinking the worse, looking for damage from the 20x16” canvass which dropped from its fixing in the wall. I see plastic floating within the tank, dang the hob took the hit. Although it’s only home to some filter floss and only active through the night it still makes up part of my tank. So considering that was the worst of the damage I took it as a bonus as I honestly thought I would have more damage to face. Long story short, I further damage to the tank, no longer have any fixtures positioned above the tank, other than my radion of course....
Just as the tank was making me happy to seem settled. Fortunately I have back ups and was able to add my back up hob so back as it was, happy days.
Although it felt like I was not giving the tiny nano tank the attention it needed by not changing water for a whole month, it was only as I was working out how this dosing regime works and making sure I got to learn how much my tank demanded from replenishing the main three, Alk, Cal & Mg on my doser. Again it took longer than anticipated as other life demands took priority. Anyhow, we now have the tank being dosed 10ml/day of both Alk & Cal, and from what I’ve read, it’s optimum to have those two elements being dosed equally to prevent having an unbalanced regime, eventually causing a potential problem for the corals/clams etc. Obviously I kept looking at the tank thinking I need to give it a water change and clean the nano skimmer, clean the piles of detritus off the tank bottom as well as address the slight algae growth. This eventually got done, well needed.
Fast forward. Having had my Pink-Streaked Wrasse in holding tank for a good 40 days, it was time to decide if I prophylactically treat using CP & de wormer as I’m sure it’s common knowledge that Wrasse are known for internal worms. I was not sure to risk running the fish through CP as wrasse are known to struggle on that med and I believe it’s more common the use copper to treat Wrasse. Anyhow, as I purchased the fish from a reputable trusted LFS who had the fish run through their own QT on a lower dose of copper I was leaning towards just visually examining the fish’s well being and looking for signs of parasite/illness. This I never see any signs of, other than a tiny white speck on the anal fin early on which I later settle on thinking it must have been where the fish rests upon the tank bottom and must have just had something caught as it went away and never came back. Partly the reason I kept the fish in the holding tank in case it had a break out of white spot for example.
So, all the clams have new shell growth, white in abundance which for me is one of the better signs knowing the clam is healthy. My corals are spouting new heads, or new growth. For me that’s enough to feel I must be going in the right direction. Who said smaller tanks are more demanding ha ya, being a newb to marine fish keeping I am glad I did my research and found the people I wanted to listen to for guidance. After all in this hobby, every tank is different and many hobbyist tend to follow advice at a point of feeling there is no other option, because they have issues they are not sure how to deal with. Then it’s difficult to know who to follow as there are so many answers to the one question, yet all deem to appear it’s the right answer.
If I had of not done my research I would have not known I could skip cycle my set up, put a 1” maxima clam in after the first month, take my coral out of the water when needed to action maintenance, use hydrogen peroxide to blast algae from my rocks just to name a few. All this in a small tank, many would naturally think it’s not going to work. Well I can only speak from experience that the tank is well, as mentioned above, clams and coral doing well.
Since set up I’ve only lost a small Alveopora carol of which I’m aware can be temperamental at best and one of my fire shrimp, unexplained death as the other one I purchased from same tank is still thriving today!!!
The @reefloat nano slimmer is certainly something I would recommend as its doing a fab job, that so I’m sure it was removing too much dissolved nutrients when I never had fish of which is why my Alveopora died. I’ve not changed the Aqua Medic air block since it was installed with the skimmer, that’s just good considering they’re branded to only last 1-2 months at best before they need renewing. Obviously not the case, providing maintenance is done of course
Finally, and don’t judge however feel free to chime in. Yet again sitting by the tank, having the feeling of being submerged on a coral reef ha ha, it’s a dream.... I notice something unusual, yet the nightmare everybody housing sps dreads. Flatworm, a google search later reveals it’s not a pest or danger as such until it becomes overrun. The sp. Acoel seem to be the least problematic although obviously who wants any form of pest. Admittedly they’re known for loving detritus as well as thrive in heavily fed tanks, so considering I was feeding a whole frozen cube over two days I guess that explains their survival. Some suggest 48h blackout, will rid of them, however not keen to action that right now. Other obviously suggest the magic potion flatworm treatment, of which could have an adverse affect if there are too many in situ as upon death they release a toxin and that would impact a tank if riddled with flatworms. Yes I can siphon the majority off the glass and treat, however as I’ve always looked at it. Don’t just pour potions into the whole water column, hence why I kept an accessible rock structure in the events of needing to take the rock out for maintenance. I will always keep any tank I keep with an easy accessible rock scape, regardless. Purely as I prefer to rid of any issue rather than sit it out and manifest. So this left me with a choice of manual eradication or putting together my mesh cover for the tank top and get my Wrasse from QT/holding tank and into the mix.
Welcome my latest addition to the display tank, Pink-Streaked Wrasse (picture to follow). Upon entrance he was at work, picking at the rocks. Now just a test to see if he deals with this slight issue regarding the flatworm. I report this as I believe the Acoel Sp. can be common in most tanks, however are kept at bay from predators of which I had none, until now. Other than that, I’ve held back from feeding totally and sparsely feed the clownfish to keep it ticking over. Let’s see if the Wrasse and Pipefish can do a job of the survival mode and clean up the tank, of the pest at least...... Before I remove the one I see from the glass at weekly water change
FTS
Coral growth
Fungia love
Acoel flatworm (microscope)
The flatworm appears to have green algae content in their body which I believe it their source of food, which explains not surprised as I never scraped the glass for a long time when I never did a water change for the month. For me I’m more happy that the tank is thriving and it’s an issue which could have been a lot worse. Still thinking how it got into the tank initially, my best guess would be from the Crocea clam which was my last addition over a month ago. I did my usual procedure of toothbrush the shell and h2O2, then RODI , to rid of algae or pests. And I give it a thorough go. The reason I think it’s the culprit is I’d never had the pest previously and I noticed a foam like best cocoon growth between the scoots form of which I still don’t know what it could be. A sponge maybe? Who knows......
Well, back to family life folks and be good to catch up with you all on some feedback/advice
@brandon429
@DSC reef
@NY_Caveman
@SPR1968
@Vincent100
A.
Last edited:
Hey just caught up with all status, great! We did not foresee falling materials heh and nice rebound. I love how not every aspect of the hobby can be predicted, to be nimble is the swing vote for long haulers.
The coral mass addition is faster than expected that’s frag city. Is the reef roids doing most of that + strong ion dosing or is the by product of fish/fish feed and good dosing making that coral difference?
The coral mass addition is faster than expected that’s frag city. Is the reef roids doing most of that + strong ion dosing or is the by product of fish/fish feed and good dosing making that coral difference?
OP
OP
hotashes
Well-Known Member
[emoji106][emoji2533]
[emoji106][emoji2533]
Hey B, thanks. The coral growth is simply frozen cube mysis and dosing Alk & Cal. I couldn’t suggest the fish load offers big impact at this point as I would have to say very little if any.
I know you like the clam survival rate I’ve had
A.
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